The Association between Academic Stress and Problematic Internet Use among Adolescents: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis.
Despite previous studies examining the relationship between problematic Internet use and academic stress in adolescents, significant limitations remain, especially in terms of the nature of the stress and moderators. This study systematically examines the association between academic stress and prob...
| Published in: | Journal of Youth & Adolescence Vol. 54; no. 7; pp. 1779 - 1800 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Jul2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=186534037&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 186534037 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00472891 JYA jtl: Journal of Youth & Adolescence issn: 00472891 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 54 iid: 7 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 186534037 10.1007/s10964-025-02151-6 ppf: 1779 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: The Association between Academic Stress and Problematic Internet Use among Adolescents: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis. aug: au: Chen, Zihao Zeng, Jinyi Liao, Jinqian Guo, Cheng affil: https://ror.org/01kj4z117 Faculty of Psychology/Research Center of Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China su: Internet addiction in adolescence Sex distribution Age distribution Motivation (Psychology) Academic achievement Psychological stress Psychological tests Adolescence Statistical correlation Effect sizes (Statistics) Research funding Fisher exact test Meta-analysis Maximum likelihood statistics Descriptive statistics Systematic reviews Medical coding Quality assurance Data analysis software Psychology information storage & retrieval systems ERIC (Information retrieval system) Publication bias Regression analysis sug: subj: Internet addiction in adolescence Sex distribution Age distribution Motivation (Psychology) Academic achievement Psychological stress Psychological tests Adolescence Statistical correlation Effect sizes (Statistics) Research funding Fisher exact test Meta-analysis Maximum likelihood statistics Descriptive statistics Systematic reviews Medical coding Quality assurance Data analysis software Psychology information storage & retrieval systems ERIC (Information retrieval system) Publication bias Regression analysis keyword: Academic stress Adolescents Problematic internet use Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology Academic stress Adolescents Problematic internet use Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology ab: Despite previous studies examining the relationship between problematic Internet use and academic stress in adolescents, significant limitations remain, especially in terms of the nature of the stress and moderators. This study systematically examines the association between academic stress and problematic Internet use in adolescents, using a three-level meta-analysis. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, it conducted a comprehensive database search including 49 studies, with 166 effect sizes and 189,483 adolescents. The results indicate a positive correlation between academic stress and problematic Internet use in adolescents. Additionally, moderation analysis revealed that both sources of academic stress and academic stress measurement tools significantly moderated the association. The association between mixed academic stress (intrapsychic and external stressors) and problematic Internet use was significantly stronger than that between external academic stress and problematic Internet use. The association was weaker when using the Academic Expectations Stress Inventory than other scales. These findings highlight that problematic Internet use is often an maladaptive coping strategy for adolescents under academic stress, and this behavior does not vary with the specific use of the Internet. However, it also suggests that under certain cultural contexts, external academic stress can be transformed into motivation for learning. This study deepens our understanding of how academic stress influences adolescent Internet use and underscores the need for improved measurement tools to capture the complexity of academic stress. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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